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Hello PLUG,<br>
<br>
A big thanks to John McCabe-Danstead for his talk Tuesday night;
around 10 of us turned up at UCC at UWA to hear how John's
contribution has started to be used in automated testing.<br>
<br>
We had some issues with the AV gear; a recording should be available
in a few days, but I know we missed the first part of the talk (we
were down a few people in getting this set up; perhaps we need
another practice workshop, and a few more volunteers!!).<br>
<br>
In recent news, PLUG in the pub at the end of November saw 15 PLUG
people at The Moon & Six Pence for a lively evening, and the
PLUG BBQ in Kings Park on Sunday 4th saw about 6 PLUG members share
a BBQ; while it was a bit warm, it was quite fun.<br>
<br>
PLUG membership stands at 75 people - for those subscribed but not a
member, it's just $20/year to help run PLUG ($10/year concession) -
see the PLUG web site to sign up. There's over 350 people on the
PLUG mailing list, so at least 275 could become PLUG members - see
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.plug.org.au/membership">http://www.plug.org.au/membership</a> for details.<br>
<br>
Tuesday night marked the final event for the PLUG calendar year
2011; and our next scheduled event is the Annual General Meeting.
Nominations for the PLUG Committee for 2012 closed on Tuesday just
gone as well, and our honourable Mr Secretary is about to send
formal notice of the AGM and the list of nominees to the mailing
list with details of the AGM for those that didn't see the Public
Notice in Tuesday's West (pg 48 or so). PLUG's current constitution
requires that we have at least 30 people physically present at the
meeting; we have booked a venue suitable for this - but I'll let
Peter post this shortly. We're going to grab some pizza to further
entice 30 members to come along. So come along, and help us (a) have
an AGM, and (b) adopt the updated constitution.<br>
<br>
I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to running PLUG
over 2011; we've defintely had a marked increase in events and
activities, and I hope that you have enjoyed this as much as I have.
In particular, I'd like to thank Jason Nicholls who stepped up to
take on the responsibilities of the Treasurer role for most of 2011.
I'd like to thank Tim White for re-working the membership management
scripts and sorting out Drupal, and the team that has run the PLUG
servers over the year. Also on the "thank you list" is Daniel
Harmsworth for organising the ticketing for the Rusty talk; Tim
Bowden for the logo competition, and of course, everyone who gave a
talk for PLUG this year, and everyone who came to an event. Not to
mention, of course, Rusty Russell himself for not only coming to
Perth to talk to PLUG, but not accepting the funds we'd raised to
cover costs but asking us to bring another speaker to Perth to see
us! Those of us going to Linux.Conf.Au in a few weeks will... press
gang someone to come and see us!<br>
<br>
I strongly feel that the Linux & Open Source community has much
to offer, and in running PLUG I hope we give a venue to share ideas
and experiences in a friendly environment - at our monthly
presentations, at our social events, and on the email mailing lists
- to help further Linux & Open Source software. There's been a
long list of highlights, but I'll save that for the AGM.<br>
<br>
<br>
Looking beyond the AGM, we've not left the calendar empty!!<br>
<blockquote>January: (Social) PLUG in the Pub<br>
February: (Presentation) Moodle with Martin Dougiamas, at TAFE
Fremantle<br>
March: (Presentation) The NBN Panel Debate, with various people
form ISPs, Network associations and corporations.... (to be
confirmed)<br>
March: (Social) The PLUG Linux & Open Source-Themed Quiz Night
(PLUG in the Pub)<br>
April: (Presentation) Linux Auto-FS presentation with Ian Kent<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Of course, if you'd like to run a PLUG event, let committee know and
we'll schedule it in the calendar! Likewise if you'd like to write
articles on the PLUG web site, or help out some way, please email
committee (<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:committee@plug.org.au">committee@plug.org.au</a>).<br>
<br>
<br>
Lastly, who do you think has made the biggest impact on Linux and
Open Souce in Australia this year? We've had a bunch of great
speakers - perhaps nominate one (or more) of them for
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.linux.org.au/news/community/rusty-wrench-award-nominations">http://www.linux.org.au/news/community/rusty-wrench-award-nominations</a>.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
<br>
James<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<em>Mobile:</em> +61 422 166 708, <em>Email:</em>
james_AT_rcpt.to<br>
PLUG President 2011: <a href="http//www.plug.org.au">http://www.plug.org.au</a></div>
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